Friday, October 10, 2008

A Tale of Two Bakery Guys

Spicy and I go to the public market every saturday, and this summer there was a new addition. These two men run a stand with homemade baked goods. they use fruits and vegetables that they grow themselves, and i cannot gush enough on the deliciousness of their food. spicy and i quickly became addicted and would go every week to treat ourselves to dessert or sometimes dessert-for-breakfast. the guys started to recognize our familiar faces, and in part b/c i think they find my boyfriend cute, they started to give us free desserts.

i have no willpower to turn away from free desserts, especially awesome creative tastiness with nuts. if anybody deserves a hand-knit gift as a thank you, it's them. i decided that fingerless mitts would come in handy, since they've already reassured us they'd be selling all through the winter.

the first pair is the Maine Morning Mitts from the knitter's book of yarn. i used a partial skein of vanna's choice in chocolate and #7 knitpicks circs. surprisingly, i enjoyed knitting the pattern, even though it's just a simple 2x1 ribbing. the yarn was probably a little thick for the needles i used. my hands hurt by the end.i found the yarn to be pretty nice, reasonably soft to the touch with good stitch definition. i probably wouldn't make an entire sweater from it, but the mitts turned out well.

the second pair i am still working on, but i completed one dashing. i am using a partial skein of caron simply soft and #7 knitpicks circs.i found the pattern as written to be absurdly long, so i knit 10 rows to start and then 5 rows between cable rows for a shorter cuff. for whatever reason, i'm not finding these very enjoyable to knit.

simply soft feels a bit squicky to knit with and like the vannas choice, it doesn't have a lot of give, which makes my hands hurt. but it does feel soft compared to other acrylics and i think it will do the job just fine.

my bamboo handspun took about a week to dry. it's 2ply, spun short-draw from the fold. 346 yds, ~4oz, fingering weight. i'm not sure what i'll do with it yet, maybe a tank top. bamboo wasn't my favorite fiber to spin, but i do like the shine and drape. the skein feels quite heavy to hold.